(Closed) What happens in a courthouse wedding

We’re getting married in a courthouse next month. We’ve never been to a courthouse wedding so we don’t really know what happens there.

We’re actually having a church wedding in July but we decided to be legally married next month for documents purposes (finace is not a US citizen). So there wasn’t really much planning done for this wedding.

Do we have to have the ring exchange? Can we opt not to? Do we need to prepare vows? What do we need to prepare for?

I’m not sure if it depends on where you live, but I worked for a judge so i watched a few courthouse weddings. The ones I watched were super short, without personal vows or ring exchanges–mostly: do you take So-and-so to be your lawfully wedded husband….I do. Vice versa.

if you would like to do personal vows/ring exchanges, I would call the clerk’s office at the courthouse you’re going to and ask what the procedure is and whether the judge would allow it.

@PrincessBride27: Oh ok. Thanks! It’s gonna be in California. We don’t plan on doing the rings and vows since we’ll be doing that at the church wedding.

To be honest, we’re not really considering this as an actuall wedding. For us, it’s just part of the preparations for our real wedding. Although we are having a dinner after with a few friends who won’t be able to make to the wedding.

I went to my friends in October of last year. Here, you have to get the liscence in advance, and then book the appoitnment with the judge. We came, we all stood around in the court room with the judge, they did the vows (they didn’t exchange rings, it was just the I dos and the In sickness and in health part), and then the judge said they were married. It was under 10 minutes, super to the book. We waited longer for the judge then the whole ceremony was.